I've been wanting to learn PHP for a while now. Can anyone suggest beginning tutorials for me? I have no knowledge of PHP, so it would have to start from the beginning.

Spookster

03-29-2003, 05:57 AM

Here is the official manual and php site:

http://www.php.net/

here is a partner company with many tutorials, examples, tips, etc:

http://zend.com/

Phool

03-29-2003, 06:02 AM

phpbuilder.com is one of the better help forums around :)

You should also download the entire PHP manual from the php.net site for reference.

Grant Palin

03-29-2003, 06:56 AM

Also, are there any PHP learning books wirth reading? I'm the sort of person who likes to learn from reading books, so book recommendations would be welcome as well.

Íkii

03-29-2003, 10:09 AM

no idea about bet beginner books - would recccommend

http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/PHP101

those five tuts as a very basic start into PHP syntaxes and stuff.

You should note: recent builds of PHP will access variables in a different way than most tutorials state (well any over a few months old anyway)

If a variable is pulled from the URL it should nowadays be accessed by

$_GET['variable_name'] and not just $variable_name

form posted variables are $_POST['var_name']

and most server variables are $_SERVER['VAR_NAME'] - eg $PHP_SELF is now $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']

stoodder

03-29-2003, 01:06 PM

definetly!!:
http://robouk.mchost.com (whoops looks like robouk is down sry)
http://www.geocities.com/tipsforlinux/articles2/037-php1.html

duniyadnd

03-30-2003, 09:26 PM

it helps you with the basics, check out O'Reilly's book called:

Web Database Applications, with Php and MYSql.

This helps you with SQL as well, and guides you to creating a whole site selling wine... ;)

Once you got the basics, and understood the php syntax, check out premade classes and learn what they did at

http://www.phpclasses.org

Don't forget

http://www.php.net for the ultimate resource on php.

Duniyadnd

Nightfire

03-30-2003, 09:38 PM

Also, if you're wanting to test the scripts on your pc, but daren't/don't know how to, set up a server, php and/or mysql, then you could get phpdev (http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpdev5/) from here. It's all set up for you in that nice package :)

Grant Palin

04-01-2003, 03:49 AM

Thanks for the tip on PHPDev...sounds neat, but I already have Apache and Perl installed, and have no interest in SQL (yet...). So, I'm just going to stick with HTML Kit as my web editor. It has features for PHP, so I guess I'll get a chance to try them out. Must start reading some tutorials first.

Vinsar

04-04-2003, 07:56 PM

To learn Php you will need the php itself first so get it at www.php.net,

Now get a good & free php ide from http://www.phpide.de/

Download php manual from www.php.net

There is one more place where you can have tutorials

http://www.spoono.com/tutorials/php/

The best thing you can have to test your scripts is Foxserv ( and ofcourse by getting this one you don't need to get any thing else to run/install) Foxserv is a Apache/MySql/Php installer for windows.

Go get it at www.foxserv.net

Grant Palin

04-05-2003, 07:31 PM

Thanks for the suggestions for PHP/Apache/SQL/Perl packages. But I already have Apache and Perl installed, so I see no need to do those again. That said, do I need to download something to be able to run PHP locally via Apache? Or do I need to do some configuring for Apache to get it to run PHP scripts?

p.s. I've downloaded the PHP manual from php.net. It looks very in depth.

Nightfire

04-05-2003, 08:00 PM

You need to download php from http://www.php.net/downloads.php

Grant Palin

04-05-2003, 08:12 PM

Do I need to get the zip packacge, or the installer?

Nightfire

04-05-2003, 08:14 PM

I always got the zip package, coz there's more stuff included. It's not hard to set it up manually.

Grant Palin

04-05-2003, 08:59 PM

Shucks, I already downloaded and ran the installer version. What's in the zip that's not included with the installer?

Nightfire

04-05-2003, 09:46 PM

The zip contains alot of extensions (maybe all of the common ones), plus other things. I can't remember what it has though.

Grant Palin

04-05-2003, 10:24 PM

Do I need any of that extra stuff? I'm only just starting with PHP, so I doubt I need very much in the way of extensions or whatever.